By Wuraola Oyedokun
A geoscientist and environmental expert,Luqman Olawale,has urged the Nigerian government and petroleum industry stakeholders to embrace technologies that reduce carbon emissions without sacrificing industrial productivity.
Olawale, a researcher at the University of Georgia, the United States, tated this on Saturday while commenting on the demerits of gas flaring by Nigerian oil companies and other industrial plants, which he said lead to more health and environmental consequences than financial and economic rewards.
The expert explained that carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves the capture of CO₂ emissions from industrial processes, such as steel and cement production, or from the burning of fossil fuels in power generation, which is then transported from where it was produced, via ship or in a pipeline, and stored deep underground in geological formations.
He added that CCS is one of the technologies that plays an important role in tackling global warming.
Olawale stated that, as the world moves toward carbon net zero ─ for countries like Nigeria, rich in abundant petroleum resources but vulnerable to climate change ─ CCS offers a unique opportunity to align climate action with economic advancement.
“When implemented wisely, CCS offers a triple benefit ─ it enhances oil recovery from declining reservoirs, enables the extraction of critical minerals through in-situ leaching processes, and securely stores excess carbon dioxide deep underground,” he said.
Olawale noted that the Niger Delta and other sedimentary basins across Nigeria host extensive depleted oil fields and saline aquifers that offer promising sites for geologic CO₂ storage. He added that these same formations can also be used to store carbon while simultaneously boosting oil production through enhanced oil recovery (EOR).
He revealed that this approach has already proven successful in countries like the United States and Norway, and that Nigeria has the geological potential to follow suit.
Unfortunately, he added that many current carbon storage policy discussions in Nigeria remain surface-level.
“While public-private dialogues and pilot ideas are welcome, they often lack critical attention to subsurface flow and reactive transport processes. This creates the risk of implementing CCS without understanding how injected CO₂ behaves underground, a mistake Nigeria cannot afford,” he said.
He stressed that with better knowledge of how CCS works, Nigeria can design safer and more efficient carbon storage operations tailored to Nigerian geology.
He stated that his research, which focuses on how CO₂ and formation fluids move through rock pores and subsequent minerals’ reaction (dissolve or precipitate) that result during injection, addresses this critical knowledge gap.
In light of this, he further stated that carbon storage is not just a climate solution, that it is also an economic and environmental strategy, which, done rightly, can unlock more oil and critical minerals today while building a low-carbon legacy for tomorrow.
Olawale suggested that strategic opportunities exist that can align carbon storage with mineral extraction. He added that Nigeria’s growing interest in critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements, vital for batteries, electronics, and renewable energy technologies, can benefit significantly from the same geological knowledge and infrastructure developed for CCS.
“In essence, Nigeria could transform CCS from a cost centre into a value-generating platform that advances climate goals while strengthening its role in the global oil and critical minerals supply chain,” he said.
However, he added that for this to happen, collaboration between scientists and policymakers will be crucial.
